Masculinities and Paternity: an Intersectional Look to the Experience of Being a Young Middle Class Fathers in Barranquilla (Colombia)

Abstract

This article delves into the meanings and practices of paternity of young men from Barranquilla (Colombia) in order to understand how this experience deconstructs and reconfigures their masculine identities, which have been shaped and built in their family socialization and in the socio-cultural context. Through their own stories, I analyze the continuities and ruptures regarding their parental figures, as well as the way in which elements such as age, race, class and geographic origin influence the construction of their masculinities and their role as parents. This work shows the tensions and contradictions that emerge between beliefs/ideas and the parental practices, that are crossed by different aspects such as economic supply, care, gender socialization, leisure and free time and romantic relationships.